Sara Lafuerza

• PhD
• Maître de Conférences at Sorbonne University

A widespread area of seafloor depressions ‐ circular, arcuate to elongated‐shaped ‐ has been found along the Northern Haitian coast, at water depths between 600 and 2,000 m. Characterized by wavelengths spanning several hundred meters and heights of tens of meters, these depressions are linked with a series of narrow ridges boasting varied morpholo...

The southern border of the Larzac plateau, in the Occitanie region (France), has been affected by several complex landslides involving the failure of Jurassic carbonate series overlying Triassic clays. Detailed geological and geomorphological mapping, including photogrammetry, LiDAR and fracturing surveys on the upper stream of the Lergue and Lauro...

This study examines the sedimentary deposits resulting from the extreme hydro-sedimentary event associated with the Alex Storm, which occurred on October 2, 2020, in the Roya Valley. Over the course of 15 hours, hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of sediment were mobilized and deposited throughout the Roya river network. Four catchments of the...

This study investigates the sediment dynamics resulting from the extreme Storm Alex in October 2020 in the Roya Valley and its tributaries in the Alpes-Maritimes region, France. The storm, triggered by a low-pressure system, led to unprecedented rainfall, causing extensive flooding and erosion in the region. Despite limited pre-flood data, the stud...

This work aims to establish the role of liquefaction in a shallow submarine environment defined by a canyon head reaching the coast. The study area is the Garrucha submarine canyon head, which is located in the western Mediterranean Sea. The potential of liquefaction is approached empirically by two methods in parallel, undrained cyclic direct simp...

We present the main results of geological and geophysical investigations undertaken in the Jausiers landslide, in the Barcelonnette basin (French Alps). Orthomosaic and LiDAR based DTM datasets correlated with Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) profiles are used to identify the main characteristics. The investigated landslide consists of a rot...

The Eastern Cuban block has experienced a complex tectonic history characterized by plate interactions, resulting in a diverse array of geological features observable in the offshore sedimentary record. We investigate the tectonic evolution of offshore Eastern Cuba, specifically in the Old Bahamas Channel and its surrounding areas, by integrating m...

The Larzac carbonate plateau (France) is subject to numerous slope instabilities on its edges, ranging from toppling to landslides. Due to their extremely slow slip rates (3mm/year), these last large rotational instabilities remain poorly understood, particularly in terms of characterisation and dynamics. Our study focuses on several deep paleo-lan...

Le 2 octobre 2020, le passage de la tempête « Alex » a favorisé le déclenchement de précipitations « méditerranéennes » exceptionnellement intenses dans les vallées côtières des Alpes-Maritimes, notamment celle de la Roya. Ces pluies ont provoqué de nombreux processus hydro-géomorphologiques dévastateurs, crues glissements de terrain et éboulements...

The Alboran Basin may be subject to tsunami hazards. If such an event were to occur, it is expected that the urbanised and densely populated areas of northern Moroccan coastline would be affected. Precise inundation hazard maps are needed for tsunami risk management in this region. In this article, we argue that the diversity of hazard mapping meth...

The Gulf of Cadiz and the Alboran Sea are characterized by tectonic activity due to oblique convergence at the boundary between the Eurasian and Nubian plates. This activity has favored a variety of tsunamigenic sources: basically, seismogenic faults and submarine landslides. The main tsunamigenic faults in the Gulf of Cadiz would comprise the thru...

Historical earthquake records suggest that the Alboran Sea seismicity is mostly triggered by strike-slip faults with little or no vertical throw preventing significant tsunami formation. Although in the North Alboran Sea the Averroes fault may have a tsunamigenic potential, the main active fault system responsible of the last three major earthquake...

Rabaute A.; Gorini C.; Leroy S.; Alonso B.; Le Roy, P .; Frigola J.; Emmanuel L. ; Ketzer M.; Praeg D. ; Lopez-Gonzalez N. and the ALBACORE Scientific party 1 EGU22-6547 EGU General Assembly 2022 © Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. The Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean) is a relatively s...

The products of eruptive and mass-wasting processes that built island arc volcanoes are better preserved in marine deposits than on land. Holes U1397A and U1399A drilled during IODP Expedition 340 provide a 1.5 Ma record of the volcanic history of Martinique. ¹⁴C dating and δ¹⁸O patterns are used to reconstitute the chronostratigraphy of tephra, vo...

Earthquakes are the most commonly cited cause of offshore slope failure, followed by high sedimentation rates and ensuing pore pressure build-up. In the South Alboran Sea, the moderate seismicity (Mw = 6.4) of the strike-slip Al Idrissi Fault Zone does not appear to control directly the landslides distribution. To provide a preliminary geohazard as...

In the Alboran Sea, the Mediterranean coastline of Morocco is exposed to tsunami hazard. The average regional seismicity (≈ 6.6 Mw) may be the direct cause of this phenomenon and may enhance the possibility of occurrence of submarine landslides, a potential indirect source of tsunami. Recent events in the Indian and Pacific Oceans have demonstrated...

Magnetite is one of the most fascinating materials exhibiting the enigmatic first-order Verwey transition which is conventionally manipulated through chemical doping. Here, we show that heating magnetite results in a spontaneous charge reordering and, consequently, a hole self-doping effect at the octahedral sublattice. Core-level x-ray spectroscop...

Oblique collision between the Caribbean plate and the Bahama Banks has lead an eastward migration of the northern Caribbean plate boundary by successive southward jumps of major strike‐slip faults. The Septentrional‐Oriente Fault zone (SOFZ) defines the present‐day northern Caribbean plate boundary accommodating most of the eastward escape of the C...

West off Martinique (Lesser Antilles) the Grenada Basin submarine sediments where affected by the emplacement of Debris Avalanche Deposits (DAD). Montagne Pelée Volcano has experienced three major flank collapses during the last ~127 kyrs, resulting in a cumulated volume of up to 300 km³ offshore. Using a combination of geophysical and geotechnical...

Since the Miocene, the thinned continental crust below the Alboran Sea and its overlying sedimentary cover have been undergoing deformation caused by both convergence of Eurasia and Africa and by deep processes related to the Tethyan slab retreat. Part of this deformation is recorded at the Xauen and Tofiño banks in the southern Alboran Sea. Using...

The development of overpressure in continental margins is typically evaluated withhydrogeological models. Such approaches are used to both identify fluid flow patterns and to evaluate the development of high pore pressures within layers with particular physical properties that may promote slope instability. In some instances, these models are defin...

IODP Expedition 340 successfully drilled, for the first time, large and likely tsunamigenic volcanic island arc landslide deposits. These cores provide evidence and tests of previous hypotheses for the composition, origin, and mode of transport of those deposits. Sites in the medial to distal parts of the landslide deposits offshore Montserrat and...

Identification and seismic mapping of mass-transport deposits (MTDs) are vital targets for marine geological studies both for a better understanding of mass wasting processes and geohazards and for economic prospects in sedimentary basins. In recent decades, refinements in the interpretation of these geobodies have benefited from increasingly good...

This data report focuses on Holes U1394B, U1395B, and U1396C located offshore Montserrat. These holes were drilled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 340 and contain deposits associated with the growth and decay of the volcanic island of Montserrat. Hole U1394B dates to ~353 ka and is composed of 17 bioclastic turbidites, 24 mixed...

Recent studies hypothesize that some submarine slides fail via pressure-driven slow-slip deformation. To test this hypothesis, this study derives pore pressures in failed and adjacent unfailed deep marine sediments by integrating rock physics models, physical property measurements on recovered sediment core, and wireline logs. Two drill sites (U139...

Landslides are common features in the vicinity of volcanic islands. In this contribution, we investigate landslides emplacement and dynamics around the volcanic island of Martinique based on the first scientific drilling of such deposits. The evolution of the active Montagne Pelée volcano on this island has been marked by three major flank-collapse...

IODP Expedition 340 successfully drilled a series of sites offshore Montserrat, Martinique and Dominica in the Lesser Antilles from March to April 2012. These are among the few drill sites gathered around volcanic islands, and the first scientific drilling of large and likely tsunamigenic volcanic island-arc landslide deposits. These cores provide...

IODP Expedition 340 successfully drilled a series of sites offshore Montserrat, Martinique and Dominica in the Lesser Antilles from March to April 2012. These are among the few drill sites gathered around volcanic islands, and the first scientific drilling of large and likely tsunamigenic volcanic island-arc landslide deposits. These cores provide...

Two Pleistocene mass transport deposits (MTDs), with volumes of thousands of km3, have been identified from multi-channel seismic data in the abyssal plain at the front of the Barbados accretionary prism. Estimated sediment volumes for these MTDs are likely underestimated due to limited seismic coverage. In this work, we suggest that these MTDs are...

The Aysén fjord, 65 km long and east-west oriented, is located at 45.4ºS and 73.2ºW in Chilean Patagonia. It has a maximum water depth of 345 m. It collects the inputs of Aysén, Pescado, Condor and Cuervo rivers, which drain the surrounding Patagonian Andes. The fjord is crossed by the Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault Zone, a seismically active trench parallel...

Onshore-offshore geophysical studies conducted on Martinique have identified major flank collapse events of Montagne Pelée that generated large submarine mass wasting deposits. Here, we evaluate the preconditioning factors involved in the deformation and failure of marine sediments related to volcano-flank collapse events. We use core logging, sedi...

Marine sediments around volcanic islands contain an archive of volcaniclastic deposits, which can be used to reconstruct the volcanic history of an area. Such records hold many advantages over often incomplete terrestrial data sets. This includes the potential for precise and continuous dating of intervening sediment packages, which allow a correla...

The Aysén fjord is a 65 km long, east-west oriented fjord in Chilean Patagonia, located approximately at 45.4ºS and 73.2ºW, with a maximum water depth of 345 m. The fjord receives at present the riverine input of Aysén, Pescado, Condor and Cuervo rivers, which drain the surrounding up to 2000 m high Patagonian Andes. The fjord is crossed by a numbe...

On 21 April 2007 (Mw 6.2) an earthquake triggered more than 500 landslides near the epicenter along the Aysén fjord, Chile. One of the major failures occurred at the Punta Cola Valley involving a volume of 20.9 million cubic meters of rock. The main rockslide was followed by a rock/debris avalanche involving talus and glacio-fluvial deposits in the...

Excess pore-water pressure has a significant effect on submarine slope stability and sediment deformation, and therefore its in situ equilibrium measurement is crucial in carrying out accurate slope stability assessments and accurately deriving geotechnical design parameters. In situ equilibrium pore-water pressure is usually obtained from pore pre...

On 21 April 2007, an Mw 6.2 earthquake produced an unforeseen chain of events in the Aysén fjord (Chilean Patagonia, 45.5°S). The earthquake triggered hundreds of subaerial landslides along the fjord flanks. Some of the landslides eventually involved a subaqueous component that, in turn, generated a series of displacement waves—tsunami-like waves p...

Using temperature gradients measured in 10 holes at 6 sites, we generate the first high fidelity heat flow measurements from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program drill holes across the northern and central Lesser Antilles arc and back arc Grenada basin. The implied heat flow, after correcting for bathymetry and sedimentation effects, ranges from about...

Cited By (since 1996): 1, Export Date: 4 January 2013, Source: Scopus

Fluid seepage has been considered as the most plausible explanation to account for slope instabilities in the Eivissa Channel in between the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean Sea. In situ geotechnical tests and sediment cores obtained in the Ana Slide area, on the Balearic slope of the Eivissa Channel, suggest that t...

Data from in situ piezocone tests (CPTU) and laboratory analyses are utilized for the interpretation of the stress history of Quaternary sedimentary sequences in the upper continental slope of the Gulf of Lion, northwestern Mediterranean Sea. A CPTU based preconsolidation pressure profile referenced to the current effective stress indicates that th...

We show the results provided by piezocone tests in determining the stratigraphic profile and the soil classification of two drilling sites in the outer shelf and the upper slope of the Gulf of Lion, PRGL2 and PRGL1, respectively. Correlations with grain-size data indicate that sleeve friction can be used for profiling fine-grained sediments (site P...

Thick forced regressive units on the wide continental shelf of the Gulf of Lions (western Mediterranean) recorded the composite effect of sea level changes during the Quaternary. They are mostly composed of coastal siliciclastic and bioclastic wedges showing clinoform geometry. These deposits have been intensively explored through high-resolution s...

This study is among the first to examine the genesis of the seafloor and subsurface undulations on the Adriatic continental shelf by integrating stratigraphic information and in situ and laboratory geotechnical measurements. Interpretation of sediment behavior is based on a 32-m-long borehole crossing ( 1) a possible shear plane and ( 2) a silty cl...

A field of sediment undulations has been mapped by means of high-resolution multibeam bathymetry and seismic reflection profiles in the Llobregat River prodelta, off the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Similar features had previously been recognized in other prodelta environments and interpreted either as downslope sediment deformation or sedi...

To improve understanding of evolution of submarine canyons, a three-dimensional slope-stability model is applied to Bourcart Canyon in the western Gulf of Lions in the Mediterranean Sea. The model builds on previous work by Chen and others, and it uses the upper bound theorem of plasticity to calculate the factor of safety of a kinematically admiss...

Very little work has been done concerning the natural gamma and the neutron tools of near surface marine sediments and their practice in geotechnics. This paper focuses on the application of natural gamma radiation and the neutron absorption for predicting geotechnical properties of marine sediments. Preliminary results indicate positive relationsh...

This article describes a preliminary study on the Llobregat delta, Spain, which includes the construction of a 3D model from cone penetration tests (CPT) and piezocone tests (CPTU) in order to establish the architectural stacking pattern of deltaic sediment bodies. The sediment facies identified from boreholes have been characterized by using their...